Manually operated loom



July 26, 1960 w. c. WETHERILL 2,946,351

MANUALLY OPERATED LOOM Filed April 2, 1958 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 F: e. I.

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- MANUALLY OPERATED LOOM Filed April 2, 1958 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIGJO. 25

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ATTORNEY July26, 1960 w. c. WETHERILL MANUALLY OPERATED LOOM 7 Sheets-Sheet '7 Filed April 2, 1958 INVENTOR. WILLIAM G. WETHERILL ATTORNEYS BY 26M.W$

United States *Patent 6 ice MANUALLY OPERATED LooM William C. Wetherill, 1673 E. Willow Grove, 'Cheltenham Township, Pa.

Filed Apr. 2, 19-58, Ser. No. 725,944

2 Claims. (Cl. 139-33) This invention relates to looms of the type that are manually operated.

It is an object of this invention to provide a loom having a heddle frame equalizer, a lam and a pedal and having these parts interconnected by non-stretchable elements.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a mounting for the heddle frame that will activate selected frames in a manner that will not entail any stretchable mountmg.

The various features of novelty which characterize this invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims which are annexed to and form a part of this specification. For a better understanding of the invention, however, its advantages and specific objects obtained by its use, reference should be had to the accompanying draw- Patented July 26, 1960 The carrier boxes have mounted on the outside thereof racks 35 and 36, so that there is one rack on the carrier box for pinions 29 and for frames A and B and a second rack 36 on the carrier box for the pinions 31 and 32 between frames C and D. The racks and 36 mounted on the carrier boxes are connected by pinions 37, 38 therebetween as illustrated. This arrangement allows the activation of the frames in any desired combination required by the pattern to be woven. When, if any combination of, except all of the frames is depressed, the remaining frame or frames must rise correspondingly.

Attached to the bottom of the heddle frame by two non-stretchable links 39, 40, 41 and 42 are equalizers 47, 48, and 49 and 50 of the conventional type. There are two links on each frame and the end link 39, 40, 41 and 42 are shown in Figs. 2 and 11.

Below each equalizer and attached thereto are two nonstretchable connections, in this case metal links 51, 52, 53 and 54, are the lams A, B, C and D. These lams may be of any desired form. In the present illustration of this invention the lam comprises a light weight metal bar having a series of openings therein to receive the connecting link of the pedal leaves.

The pedals comprise a series of two or more leaves rotatably mounted on a shaft 55, shown in Figs. 1 and 2,

through the end of the leaf remote from the loom actiings and descriptive matter in which have been illus- M trated and described, the preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front view of the hand loom;

Fig. 2 is a side view, partially in section, of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a stop view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 55 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on line 6-6 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view on line 7--7 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view on line 8-8 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 9 is a sectional view on line 9-9 of Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is a front view similar to Fig. 1 showing two heddle frames A and B depressed and two heddle frames C and D raised.

Fig. 11 is a side view of the operating mechanism shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 12 is a perspective view partially in section of the gearing mechanism, showing heddle frames A and D depressed and heddle frames B and C raised.

The loom has a conventional frame 20. Mounted within this frame are a series of heddle frames A, B, C and D. Four are shown for purposes of illustration and are not to be considered a limitation of this invention. These heddle frames comprise a rectangular frame having heddle wires (not shown) with the conventional loop opening in the center thereof to receive the warp thread, the warp thread being threaded through the heddles in a manner called for by the pattern to be woven. The heddle frames are mounted on rigid metallic supports 21, 22, 23 and 24 shown in Fig. 12 which comprise racks 25, 26, 27 and 28 (shown in Figs. 4 and 12), attached to each heddle frame on each end thereof. These racks are controlled by one or more pinions 29, 30, 31 and 32, placed between adjacent racks. With the four heddle frame loom illustrated, frames A and B have racks 25, 26 facing each other with two pinions 29 and 30 meshably engaging these racks. Frames C and D likewise have racks 27 and 28 on each end thereof with two pinions 31 and 32 meshably engaging these racks. These pinions are mounted in carrier boxes 33 and 34.

vating structure. The pedal-leaves are arranged at least two in a set separated by the necessary spacer washers 56 to maintain them in their proper position. Housed on the same shaft and rotatably mounted on the leaves are activator pedals 57, 58, 59 and 60 which overlie all of the leaves in the set. Two are shown in the embodiment of the invention illustrated in this application, but three or more may be necessary to provide the controlled arrangement over the heddle frame required by the particular design to be woven. The pedal shaft 55' is rigidly mounted on the housing 20 holding the loom. The pedal leaves a, a, b, b, c, c, d and d at the end remote from the shaft have a series of connected links,

'61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 68 to connect the leaves to the proper lam. These links are threaded through holes in the lam and are made of rigid metallic construction so as to avoid the stretching of the harnesses heretofore used. These links, such as 61, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, are connected to the pedal leaf a by a link 69 that surrounds the leaf and fits into a slot 70. Four slots are cut into the lower edge of each leaf, the slot being of such a depth that when the surrounding link 69 is in the slot 70 it may be connected by the connecting link 61 to the lam A, but the connecting link 61 is of such diameter that the surrounding link 69 may not be released from the slot.

In the loom shown in the drawing having four heddle frames A, B, C and D, four equalizers 47, 48, 49 and 50; four lams A, B, C and D, and eight pedal leaves a, a, b, b, c, c, d and d, and four pedal activators 57, 58, '59 and 60, when the pedal activator 57 on the right is depressed, as shown in Fig. 10, leaves a and b beneath the activator are depressed and this pulls downwardly lams A and B and depresses through the equalizer heddle frames A and B and the rack 35 on the pinion carrier box 33 mounted between the rack on the heddle frames A and B. The pinions 37 and 38 mounted between this rack 35 and the rack 36 on the pinion box 34 holding frames C and D moves upwardly an amount exactly equal to the amount that heddle frames A and B are depressed. At the same time pedal leaves a and b are allowed to depress below the remaining pedal activators while pedal leaves 0, c, d and d rise, raising the pedal leaf activators 58, 59 and 60. This compensates for the motion in the same manner that a cord connection heretofore used would compensate but does not have the disadvantage of the stretching of the cord connections as the metal links are 3 positive connections and are not subject to change in length.

When pedal activator 60 is depressed pedal leaves a, d are depressed, pedal leaves a and d are allowed to fall, and lams A and D' are depressed; and operating through the equalizer heddle frames A and 1) are depressed. When these heddle frames move downwardly the racks attached thereto move downwardly and cooperate through the pinion in the pinion boxes as shown in Fig. 12. The racks 26 and 27 on frames B and C raise these an amount exactly equivalent to the amount that heddle frames A and D are depressed.

When the other pedal activators 58 and 59 are depressed they operate in a manner similar to that described for pedal activators 57 and 60.

This arrangement allows the operation of a foot power loom commonly called a hand loom wherein the pedals operated bythe feet of the operator'are so connected to the lams, the equalizer and the heddle frame, as to prevent lost motion and unequal operation due to the stretching of the usual rope or chain harnesses found in devices of this type. The chain harnesses in particular have proven unsatisfactory due to their tendency to kink and stretch and therefore this device represents an 11.1- provernent over devices of this type and permits a man ually operated loom with a connection that wifl not stretch and will stay in adjustment for the first time in the long history of hand looms.

While in accordance with the provisions of the statutes the best forms of embodiment of this invention have been illustrated and dacrioed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the forms of the apparatus disclosed without departing from the spirit of this invention as set forth in the appended claims, and that in some cases certain features may be used to advantage without a corresponding use of other features.

What is claimed is:

1. A hand loom comprising a pedal leaf connected by two metal links to a lam thereby depressing said lam when the pedal leaf is depressed, said lam connected by a pair of metal links to an equalizer, said equalizer being depressed when the pedal leaf is depressed, the equalizer being connected by a pair of metal links to a heddle frame which in turn is depressed by said equalizer, the heddle frame having a rack on each end thereof engaging a pinion to control the motion of an opposite heddle frame.

2. A hand loom comprising at least four heddle frames, each adjacent pair of heddle frames having racks mounted on the ends thereof and pinions floatingly mounted in pinion boxes therebetween in such a manner that when one heddle frame of the pair is depressed the other adjoining heddle frame must rise, each pinion box having a rack mounted on the outside thereof, and pinions between said pinion box racks mounted on the frame of said loom so that when any pair of the heddle frames are depressed, the adjoining pair will rise.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 737,149 Roper Aug. 25, 1903 1,212,401 Rhoades Jan. 16, 1917 1,333,164 Ewart Mar. 9, 1920 1,562,268 Watson Nov. 17, 1925 2,556,643 Booth June 12, 1951 2,619,989 Sargent Dec. 2, 1952 2,803,267 Macomber Aug. 20, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 5,444 Great Britain of 1886 782,757 Great Britain Sept. 11, 1957 

